


Once Upon A Dream

by sweetNsimple



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 09:28:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10637043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetNsimple/pseuds/sweetNsimple
Summary: All soulmates had some bond that continued to unite them into the physical realm of humanity, long after giving up their beginning phase of interstellar material.  Some soulmates could feel what their soulmate was feeling, even halfway across the world.  Some soulmates shared thoughts.  Some felt the physical impressions of what their soulmate was doing from moment to moment.Leonard, though?  Dreams.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Однажды во сне](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14168511) by [BillieQuiet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BillieQuiet/pseuds/BillieQuiet), [Rosy_Warner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosy_Warner/pseuds/Rosy_Warner)



“I think I met you today,” his soulmate said, combing his long fingers through the cool grass peeking out of the last winter traces of snow.  The air was crisp and the trees covered in autumn colors, but they were both warm. 

Impossible green-hazel eyes fluttered from the forest floor to his face.  Leonard could never remember what his soulmate looked like after waking up, but he always thought that he should, having a soulmate with eyes like those.  Like hope and spring and new beginnings.  Leonard was too old, too broken for new beginnings – but maybe, just maybe, his soulmate could teach him a thing or two about change. 

“You hurt me,” his soulmate said, pressing a hand to his abdomen.  His soulmate was long and lithe.  Leonard reached out and rested his hand over his soulmate’s, following soon after with a kiss to his soulmate’s ribs.  His soulmate sighed, part relief and part happiness at such intimacy. 

His soulmate fell back against the grass and Leonard crouched over him.  “I told you.  I’m not one of the good guys.”  He lifted his hand from his soulmate’s ribs to smooth over the curve of his pink lips.  His soulmate had a beautiful mouth.  Leonard loved to kiss him. 

Someday, he thought, he would kiss his soulmate outside of their dreams.  More than he ever deserved, but also something he wanted more than anything else.  “I do bad things, baby,” he told his soulmate.  “And I’m not going to stop.”

“Even for me,” his soulmate stated.  Not asked, not begged, not despaired.  A simple matter of fact.  His soulmate grasped his hand and pressed a tender kiss to his palm.  “Not even for your soulmate.”

“I never said I deserved you,” Leonard said.  Which was true.  “I’m a thief and a liar and I hurt people and I rob them.  When I find you…  I will steal, lie, hurt, and kill to keep you.”

“Gee,” his soulmate snorted.  “Way to make a guy feel special.”  Then he fell worryingly silent.  “I don’t want you to do any of that.”

Leonard followed the siren’s call, bringing his lips to his soulmate’s.  It was always a shock at first, like static, and then the taste of coffee and whipped cream.  He loved it.  He loved the taste of his soulmate.  He loved the feel of his soulmate, how they fit together.  He loved how out of his league his soulmate was.  Too good, too precious, too kind, and definitely too young for Leonard – but Leonard’s nonetheless. 

Leonard could never give this up, not even if it was possible and doing so would give his soulmate the chance to find someone worthy of his love. 

“I can’t make any promises,” Leonard said into his soulmate’s mouth.  His soulmate had a hand on his shoulder and one leg curved around his hip, ready to drag him back down into paradise. 

“I’m yours,” his soulmate said, almost desperately.  “You don’t have to hurt anyone to keep me.  I’m never going away.  Just – Just, please.  Please, don’t hurt me anymore.”

Leonard shut his eyes.  He had never aimed to hurt his soulmate – certainly not physically.  He had never wanted to become his father, who left bruises and scars on his own children.  He couldn’t become his father. 

“I never meant to,” he said.  “I wish I wouldn’t.”  He pressed his forehead to his soulmate’s.  “Baby,” he whispered.  “I can never remember what you look like when I’m awake.”

His soulmate sighed, sad and accepting.  “Neither can I, or else I would have told you today.” 

Leonard felt the snow beneath them melting.  The hold he had on his soulmate seemed to be drifting away. 

He was waking up.

He grasped at sleep, tried to remain behind, but all he had time for was a quick, “I love you,” before he snapped awake in bed.

Leonard Snart kept his eyes shut, trying to recall and burn into memory every detail he remembered of his soulmate.  Short or tall?  Fat or thin?  Brown hair?  Black hair?  Woman?  Man?  Agender?  He struggled for anything, but there was only a blur.  A shadow in the picture frame where his soulmate should be. 

In a foul mood, he lurched out of bed and subjected himself to a freezing shower.  It sucked, but so did emotions.  So did this whole soulmate business.  Wasn’t it terrible, being subconsciously drawn to the other part of your soul?  The essence of interstellar gas and star dust that had shared the same space as his own essence before they had devolved into human beings?  All soulmates had some bond that continued to unite them into the physical realm of humanity, long after giving up their beginning phase of interstellar material.  Some soulmates could feel what their soulmate was feeling, even halfway across the world.  Some soulmates shared thoughts.  Some felt the physical impressions of what their soulmate was doing from moment to moment. 

Leonard, though?  Dreams.  He shared his dreams with his soulmate, which was fucking rich.  Leonard and dreams?  Not close friends.  Not even vague, distant friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend.  All of Leonard’s accomplices and their business associates didn’t have dreams.  They had goals of accomplishing more wealth.  Only Leonard suffered the indignity of dreams full of hope and love and longing.

He curled his hands into fists against the shower’s tile wall.  His skin had prickled in the cold and his dick was trying valiantly to disappear into his body.  This was a punishment.  _Remember them_ , he begged his mind, his body, his very heart.  _Whoever the hell they are, remember them_.  But there was nothing.  Only impressions of feelings.  Of being complete and content and maybe even fucking _forgiven_ –

He paused.  Forgiven for what?

_“You hurt me.”_

The voice slammed into Leonard so suddenly and without warning that he almost fell.  Now he had to brace himself against the tiles.

That voice was almost familiar.  Leonard had hurt them?  His soulmate?  Well, that wasn’t helpful at all – he had just derailed an entire fucking _train_.  He had held up a museum!  He had hurt a shit ton of people.

He snarled at himself.  “You’re losing your cool, Snart,” he snapped at himself.  “Get a hold of yourself.  What would you even do with a soulmate?  Hide them away in the art collection?”

But his soulmate was as priceless, as delicate, and as beautiful as any painting, he was sure.  There was something there – he thought he could almost feel his soulmate’s hand in his, but it was there and gone.  Impossible to define. 

He tried to turn his mind to other things.  That Flash for instance –

_“I’m yours.”_

Impossible green-hazel eyes.

_“Please, don’t hurt me anymore.”_

That fucking _voice_.

Leonard shut the water off and almost tripped getting out of the shower stall.

The fucking Flash was his fucking _soulmate_.

He stared long and hard at himself in the mirror.  It was ages before the corner of his mouth quirked up.  “Fitting,” he growled to himself.  “The criminal, soulmate to the beloved hero.”

The hero that… no one knew about?  No one believed in?  Yes, he had done his research.  There was one blog that focused on possible sightings and very little else.  Why?  A hero deserved a following, right?

Not just any hero, though.

His soulmate deserved praise.  Deserved worship and respect and every other goddamned good thing on the planet.

Leonard sauntered back into his bedroom, feeling loose and ready despite shivering from the cold. 

He was going to draw his soulmate out into the open and show everything that the Flash existed.  That he was there for the _beloved_ citizens of Central City.  He was going to make the people fall in love with him.

Just as Leonard had. 

~::~

“Why did you do it?” His soulmate whispered, broken and sad.  “I didn’t want this.”

Leonard smoothed a hand through thick brown hair.  Impossible green-hazel eyes looked up at him.  “You deserve to be recognized for what you do, baby.”

“I don’t want people to know that I exist.”

“Yes, you do.  Or you would have.”

His soulmate sighed and Leonard crouched down so that he could draw his exhausted soulmate to him.  His soulmate rested his weary head on Leonard’s chest.  “Publicity’s good.  With all the other metas running around, causing issues, it’s best to have a meta on the city’s side.”

His soulmate chuckled.  “How much did it suck to say that?”

“You have no idea.”

“You did it… to help me?”

“Yes, baby.”

“Then why did you hurt me?”

“Because I’m the bad guy,” Leonard murmured into his soulmate’s hair.  “Part of my job is making sure that the city has a need for you.  Giving the people a reason to adore you.  Give you someone to fight.”

“I don’t want to fight you.”  His soulmate tangled his hands in Leonard’s shirt and hung on tightly.  “I want to see you when I’m awake and tell myself, every day, a hundred different reasons why I love you.”

“You can’t even do that while you’re sleeping, baby,” Leonard said.

How unfortunate, he thought, that someone as sweet and kind and honorable as his soulmate was forever stuck to him.  Leonard wasn’t good for his soulmate. 

But there were no takebacks and he wouldn’t give his soulmate up even if there were.  He was too much the opposite of his soulmate and selfish on top of that.

“I can,” his soulmate snapped.

“Bullshit,” Leonard answered.

His soulmate took this as a personal challenge, which Leonard should have seen coming.

The last reason Leonard heard before he woke up, the fifty-second compliment, was “I love how much you love your baby sister,” and then he was staring at his ceiling.

He stared for a long time.

“I hate how I don’t even know your name,” he told his soulmate who was not there anymore.

“And I hate that you still don’t know who I am.”

~::~

Hurting his soulmate’s friends was, at this point, more of a collect ‘em all sort of deal. 

But at least he knew his soulmate’s name.  Not much else mattered.

Even if his soulmate was pissed beyond reason and glaring at Leonard like he wanted to kill him.

“Barry Allen,” Leonard purred.  “Do you believe me now?”

“Believe you?” Barry growled.  “About what?”

“That I am a criminal and a liar.”  Barry flinched and looked, for a long minute, confused.  That confused became something of a dawning realization, which turned to horror.  “And I hurt people and I rob them.”

“I…”  Barry, his soulmate, swallowed thickly and tripped over his visibly unsteady legs.  “I know you.  I know you, but it – it can’t be…”

Leonard felt death move into him, breathed in and held with chains so heavy that they weighed him down in an ocean of loss and made him drown.

It couldn’t be.

His soulmate showed none of the forgiveness he gave Leonard in their dreams.  No.  Barry looked as if he’d been betrayed by life.  A cosmic joke.

And Leonard felt like the universe had just crumbled apart.

His soulmate did not want him.  Why would Barry want him?  Barry was a hero and Leonard was the criminal who had hurt and threatened his friends.  Oh, but, Leonard – what had you been thinking?

It was getting chilly under his skin.

Hatred abound.

Barry stumbled back –

And then Leonard was being kissed and he forgot how to breathe, his heart forgot how to beat, and his mind was silent.

“It’s _you_ ,” Barry whispered against his mouth.  His red leather-glove clad hands were fisted in Leonard’s parka.  “Oh, God, finally, it’s _you_.  Why could I never remember?  Those eyes are unforgettable.”  He pressed another searing kiss to Leonard’s mouth, almost sobbing.  “Say it.  Please.  Like how you always do.”

“Baby,” Leonard began, about to say that Barry should be more clear, but Barry curled into him on that one word and made a noise of pleasure and pain into the curve of Leonard’s jaw.  “Baby,” he said again with a purr, two syllables full of love and affection and possessive pride.  Barry sighed and rested his head on Leonard’s shoulder.  “Baby,” he said one more time, voice thick and deep, “Give me another kiss.”

“Come and get it,” Barry dared.

“Gladly.”

~::~

“I’m happy,” his soulmate said, looking off into the sunset.  Down the hill they were on was the sprawling lines of a metropolis.  Just behind them was the forest in its autumn colors and white snowy floors.  The ground was dry and green where they were sitting. 

His soulmate sighed and closed his eyes, willingly waking up without a fight.  So different from what it had been when they had both fought tooth and nail against losing the dream.

Leonard blinked awake to the sensation of Barry Allen kissing him on the lips.

“Good morning,” Barry murmured, morning breath foul and hair rumpled, eyes dark and glazed over from just having woken up.

Leonard wouldn’t change a thing.  Except the breath. 

“When did you eat the skunk?”

“What?”

“Go brush your teeth, baby, then come back and kiss me.”

Barry groaned and rolled his eyes.  “Bossy.”

“You love me.”

There was a pause heard all around the world.  They hadn’t said it out loud yet.

Almost fearless, Barry leaned down and kissed him on the top of the noise.

“Yeah,” he agreed.  “I do love you.  Do you love me?”

“Who wants to know?” he groused.  Barry scowled.  “I do, baby.  I love you.” 

So much that, some days, it just didn’t seem possible.

And yet, here they were.  And life was…  Life wasn’t too bad.

Not that bad at all.


End file.
